


Sleepless Night V

by LadyValkyrie



Series: Nights not spent sleeping [5]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Injury, James is angry at Thomas, M/M, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 21:18:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13509984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyValkyrie/pseuds/LadyValkyrie
Summary: Thomas Hamilton woke to the discomfort in his leg. He sighed, and shifted his weight to relieve the cramp - winter must not be too far away, he’d found that the old wound would ache as the cooler weather approached. Thomas looked over to James who was still asleep next to him, and smiled to himself.It had been ten years since they found each other again, ten years wonderful years that they’d found a measure of peace and quiet.Well except for the incident that had brought Hercules the cat into their lives.





	Sleepless Night V

Thomas Hamilton woke to the discomfort in his leg. He sighed, and shifted his weight to relieve the cramp - winter must not be too far away, he’d found that the old wound would ache as the cooler weather approached. Thomas looked over to James who was still asleep next to him, and smiled to himself. Thomas’ dog, Venus, was lying at the foot of the bed - she raised her head, and seeing that Thomas was alright, went back to sleep. As a puppy, she had been a present from James for his birthday five years ago. Hercules, their cat, was curled up next to James.

 

It had been ten years since they found each other again, ten years wonderful years that they’d found a measure of peace and quiet.

 

Well except for the incident that had brought Hercules the cat into their lives. Oh and that time the town solicitor had almost discovered them together.

 

***

Thomas was behind in his work, and had been bringing home extra papers to finish off in the evening. He’d almost caught up by Saturday, and was going to take the completed papers back to town that afternoon, then he planned a throughly lazy Sunday which didn’t involve he or James leaving their bedroom.

 

‘Thomas, you take too much on. You can’t keep up with doing most of the solicitor’s work, plus effectively running the town, plus keep up your correspondence with the Governor, plus keep the books, plus volunteer for every other bloody job that comes along. It’s not humanly possible!’ James was annoyed as he watched Thomas bundle his papers into his satchel.

 

‘My dear James, I’ve almost caught up. I just need to take these back to Mr Hawkins, then I’ll return for dinner, and then we’ll find something to occupy ourselves this evening.’ Thomas smiled, and kissed James’s forehead.

 

‘My dear Thomas, look outside - there’s a storm coming.’ James frowned, annoyed at Thomas’ obstinance.

 

‘I’ll be back before you know it - I did promise Mr Hawkins I’d have this work back to him today. I’ll see you shortly.’ Thomas gave Venus a pat goodbye and headed out.

 

Thomas began the walk into town. He would have taken their horse, but she’d come up lame. He strolled past their neighbour Mary and her children, waved, and made his way to town. He dropped his papers off, stopped to chat with a few others - but then it became obvious that the storm wasn’t far off, and reluctant to miss a night with James, Thomas made his excuses and started his journey home.

 

He was about halfway home when the storm broke - blast, he should have stayed in the town. He battled along against the wind and rain; and then had to dodge left to avoid a branch falling off a tree. Thomas stumbled in to a ditch, cursing as his ankle twisted and he almost tumbled down the slope to the river below. As he picked up his bag, he heard a soft mewing sound. Curious, he peered down into a hole and found a kitten, drenched and tiny - oh poor thing! Thomas looked around the ditch, but there was no sign of the mother cat or litter. He picked the kitten up and bundled it into his shirt, he could hardly leave the poor little thing behind.

 

Thomas went to stand, and then felt the earth give way underneath him and he fell down the slope.

 

He lay, dazed, on a ledge near the river. His leg hurt, and when he tried to move it, he almost threw up with the pain. Thomas ran his hand down his leg to discover a rather large gash which was bleeding, plus it seemed to be at a very odd angle. His head spun, and he found that he had a cut on his forehead, and blood was running down his face into his eye. Oh for God’s sake, he was being drowned in the storm, he was out of sight of the road (and besides, who would be daft enough to be out in this weather, even if he could make himself heard above the wind and rain?), he couldn’t move with this broken leg and he was getting cold. And bleeding. And James probably would think that Thomas had elected to stay the night in town with the bad weather on the way and wouldn’t look for him until he didn’t return in the morning. And Thomas would have either frozen, drowned or have bled to death by then.

 

On the plus side, the kitten was safe and sound. It mewed at him and burrowed into Thomas’ vest. 

 

*

Thomas drifted in and out of consciousness over the next few hours. He was so cold, even after the rain stopped, but his leg at least had gone numb. 

 

*

He woke to the sound of shouting and the sight of a man climbing down the slope with a lantern.

 

‘James, James! He’s down here!’ a familiar voice shouted - who was it? Thomas was dazed, then he heard a dog barking.

 

The lantern came closer and Thomas saw that it was Mary’s eldest lad, Edmund. 

 

‘Oh hello Ed, so glad to see you.’ Thomas said weakly.

 

‘Thomas, how on earth did you end up down here?’ Edmund went to pick up Thomas’ bag which had rolled further down the slope. James approached with a second lantern, and Thomas saw the relief evident on his face.

 

‘What happened? Are you alright?’ James bent down and took Thomas’ hand.

 

‘Um no, not really my love. I’m afraid my leg is in rather a bad way. I fell when I was trying to rescue the kitten.’ At this, Thomas held up the small, damp bundle of fur.

 

James gave him a blank look ‘You were rescuing a kitten. In the middle of a storm you should not have been in. Jesus Christ.’

 

*

Thomas slipped into a fever over the coming days. His leg was infected, plus the hours in the cold had brought back a chest infection he first picked up in Bedlam.

 

He dreamt of the salons he held in London, of the wonderful times he shared with James and Miranda, of being dragged off to Bedlam. He woke, disoriented, to discover a woman bending over him, mopping his brow.

 

‘Hush, Thomas, it was just a dream.’ The young woman mopped his brow - Miranda? No, not Miranda, her hair is wrong - is it Mary from next door? No, not her either - oh hang on, it’s Mary’s daughter Lizzie. Why is she here? Where is James?

 

He woke again to the town Doctor visiting. He and James were discussing Thomas’s leg; the wound wasn’t healing, and the Doctor wanted to amputate. James is saying something - no? He won’t let it happen again - let what happen again? Goodness, it is hard work trying to follow the conversation. Thomas is tired and he just wants to sleep, but his leg is screaming, pain shooting up his side.

 

‘Just take the fucking thing off’ he mumbled, and went back to sleep. He dreamt of the plantation, he kept seeing James returned to him, but then he was taken away, and Thomas was running around the grounds searching for him, screaming.

 

When Thomas next woke his leg seemed to be a bit better - it is still attached to him and it’s wrapped in a clean bandage, with some sort of poultice which smells funny. Mary was sitting in the chair near the bed, reading one of their books, mouthing the words, running her finger along the page.

 

‘Where’s James?’ Thomas asked.

 

‘Oh you’re awake. Good. And I think your fever has broken.’ Mary smiled, marked her place in the book, and picked up a glass of water to give to Thomas. ‘James has gone to town to buy more supplies; he’ll be back shortly. Poor you - it's a bit touch and go this last week.’

 

‘What happened? I remember James and Ed finding me, but I’m afraid the rest is a bit hazy.’ Thomas frowned, as Mary helped him sit up.

 

‘Well, after you didn’t return and the storm set in, that dog of yours was most distressed and kept wanting to go out to find you. James was worried too, obviously, so he came to my house for help, and he and Ed set out with Venus to find you. She found you somehow - and James and Ed brought you back. You’ve been in a fever for the last week or so, that gash in your leg was infected, plus it didn’t do you any good to be out in the cold and rain for so long. The Doctor wanted to take the leg off, but James refused - instead he made up a poultice which drew the infection away - said he learnt about it in the West Indies.’

 

‘Oh, goodness. I feel a bit daft - silly to almost die to trying to rescue a kitten. Speaking of which, what happened to it?’ Thomas asked.

 

Mary laughed. ‘Oh the wee kitten is fine - look, he’s over by the window.’ 

 

And sure enough, the tiny kitten, now dry and well fed, was asleep in the sun at the window. He was rather sweet.

 

*

Mary was helping Thomas eat some broth when James returned.

 

James came striding into the room and gave Thomas a long look.

 

‘Mary, thank you for watching him - could you give us a minute please?’ James asked, still looking intently at Thomas, as Mary took her book and left.

 

‘Well, James? You look like you’re about to give me a telling off?’

 

‘Yes, I bloody well am Thomas.’ James’ face was twitching, and Thomas, after all these years together could tell that James was struggling between relief and anger. ‘What the bloody hell were you thinking? You should never have tried to the make the trip in the first place; but you should have at least stayed in town until the storm passed. And why the fuck did you think it was a good idea to go clambering about in ditches trying to rescue stray kittens?’

 

‘For Christ’s sake James, it wasn’t intentional,’ Thomas snapped, ‘and yes, with the benefit of hindsight I shouldn’t have tried to make the journey, however what is done is done. And I didn’t intentionally throw myself down that slope, the ground gave out beneath me. But if all you’re going to do is stand there yelling at me, can you please take yourself somewhere else and yell there? I’m tired and want to go back to sleep.’ Thomas made to move the now empty tray off his lap so he could lie back down.

 

James strode over and took the tray from Thomas, his face still twitching. ‘You almost died. I lost you once, and the thought of losing you again is too much to contemplate. I swear, if you try something like this again, I’ll bloody kill you to save myself the agony.’ With this closing remark, James stomped out of the room, the effect only slightly spoilt by the fact that he couldn’t slam the door behind him with his hands full with the tray.

 

*

Thomas woke later to find that it was night, and that James had climbed into bed beside him. Recognising this for the gesture of peace it was, Thomas took James’ hand.

 

‘I’m sorry I got angry. But I meant what I said about losing you. It destroyed me when I thought you dead before; I can’t stand to think of losing you again. And I feel sick when I think about what would have happened if I’d ignored Venus carrying on - she was determined to find you.’ James’ voice broke.

 

‘It’s alright, my love. And you know that we will all depart this earth one day. But I’m confident that we’ll have a good few more years ahead of us. Provided of course that you don’t still want to kill me.’ Thomas stroked James’ hand.

 

‘No, my dear, I certainly don’t want that.’

 

‘But in good news, we now have a kitten to deal with the mice and to keep Venus company. What shall we call him?’

 

**

The town was holding a Christmas gathering in the town hall, complete with bonfire. It was an opportunity for the townsfolk to come together to sing and dance, and while not as glamorous as the Governor’s parties, it was always an enjoyable evening.

 

Thomas and James escorted Mary and her children into the town, and Thomas, ever the dedicated worker, advised that he quickly had to stop by his office to finish off just one last letter before Christmas. He had found himself so busy, that he’d started to rent a small room to complete his various work obligations. James and Mary groaned at him, but realising they wouldn’t change his mind went off to join the festivities.

 

Thomas set himself up at his desk, and started working on the final document. He was almost finished when he was interrupted by none other than James. 

 

‘Oh hello dear, I’m almost done. I’ll be along to the party shortly.’ Thomas gave James a quick wink, then went back to his work.

 

James didn’t say anything. He walked around Thomas’ desk, and silently sank to his knees, spread Thomas’ legs and started to undo his breeches.

 

‘Ummm, James, what are you doing?’ Thomas gasped as James freed his cock and started to stroke it.

 

‘Go back to your work Thomas. I won’t be long.’ James took Thomas in his mouth and started to suck, long smooth strokes and licked the tip of his rapidly hardening cock.

 

‘How do you expect me to concentrate - oh God!’ At this point, James had started to tickle Thomas’ balls. 

 

Thomas saw out the window that Mr Hawkins was coming towards the office.

 

‘Oh shit, James, Hawkins is coming. He’s seen the light - did you lock the door?’ At this James looked up, startled, eyes wide and shook his head.

 

‘Too late, get under the desk.’ James quickly shuffled into the space with Thomas’ legs, while Thomas pulled the chair in - fortunate that the desk had a back to the leg space and James was hidden from view. He still held Thomas cock - it was too hard now to get back in his trousers. Christ, how was he supposed to have a sensible conversation with Mr Hawkins while James was trying to have his wicked way with him?

 

The door opened, and Mr Hawkins entered the room facing Thomas sitting at his desk.

 

‘Good evening, Mr Barlow, I trust you are well?’

 

‘Good evening Mr Hawkins, yes very well thank you, I hope this evening also finds you in good spirits? Please forgive my not getting up, I find that the cold is giving my leg some pain tonight.’  _That, and my lover is hiding under the desk going down on me_ , Thomas thought. Now James was stroking him with his hand, his tongue finding its way to his balls.

 

‘Oh no, not at all, my dear fellow. I saw your light and thought I would come past to make sure you weren’t too engrossed to miss the gathering!'

 

‘Not a chance of that, Mr Hawkins! I’ll be finished here very shortly, and will be along to join you all presently.’ Thomas’ voice caught, James was now sucking hard, and Thomas wasn’t far off. He masked this with a cough.

 

Mercifully, Mr Hawkins made his goodbyes. Once the door had closed behind him, James came out of his hiding place, hand still on Thomas’ cock. He repositioned himself, and then took Thomas in his mouth again, head bobbing quickly until Thomas came.

 

Thomas sat back in his chair, groaning from the pleasure. ‘Oh James. I love you.’

 

James grinned, ‘Oh yes, Thomas I know. Come on, get your breeches done up, we’ll be late for the festivities.'

 

***

Thomas smiled at the memory of that Christmas, oh, three years past? He ran his fingers through James’ hair, more grey than red now. He realised that it would be November tomorrow. Which meant that they’d now been together longer than they’d been separated. 

 

With that comforting thought, Thomas snuggled next to James and fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't seem to be able to let this series go - hope you enjoyed the latest instalment!


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